I have seen strong opinions on this issue on here from time to time, but I don't remember if there has ever been a thread about it.  Moira Kelly or Lara Flynn Boyle?  Which one and why?  As much as I rag on Lara's post-Peaks career and attitude, I think she was the better Donna.  I'll  think of why in later posts.  Answer me.  PS - I loved LFB in the Laura's grave at night scene.

Current tally - LFB 9, MK 3 (if I counted right - I thought there was an immense MK fanbase, where the F are you?) I am shocked.  Maybe it's just because the MK apologists shout the loudest.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Ben:  "We've laid in a gala reception for your fair-haired boys tonight.  All of Twin Peaks' best and brightest."

Jerry: "We're holding it in a phone booth?"

I'm gonna vote LFB too. She didn't make Donna a character that you always had a lot of sympathy for (unlike Moira Kelly might have done, maybe) but I still thought she made Donna a good character. And for good or bad, I find LFB extremely hot in TP! MK doesn't have the same appeal for me.

3-0 to Lara. (in anticipation of a lot of MK votes)

Even though it really grinds my gears (as Peter Griffin would say) to admit it, LFB was the better Donna. Maybe by virtue of the fact that she got to play the character longer. Moira Kelly in FWWM is one of the only things that doesn't really work for me in that movie...except when she's topless. That works for me.

In every other respect, I like Moira so much better. Lara is a Class-A skank, but she was better as Donna.

i'm going moira based on better acting, and more believable as laura's friend.

It's like asking, had FWWM gone as scripted, who was the better Cooper, Kyle MacLachlan or Chris Isaak?

Funny they could get away with the Donna switcharoo without public outcry when she was in every episode. I looked for comments on this subject on the alt.tv.twin-peaks newsgroup archives, and found under characters/episodes/scenes you didn't like:

"Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) because of lack of acting talent. Moira Kelly was much better."

- m.f.a.aarts@kub.nl, 1995 PowerStar Survey

LFB's Donna needs a hysterectomy.

I think I prefer LFB just because pilotDonna breaks my heart, and she's just IS Donna, but I found Moira's interpretation interesting. Moira's Donna was desperate to be like Laura and was Laura's little lap dog, where Donna at times was happy to be able to take Laura's place as the school sexpot (and James' girl). It's interesting that they are played by two different people before and after Laura's  death. I know it was due to shooting conflicts with LFB or whatever, but it kinda works. Moira's Donna being Laura's little worshipper to LFB's Donna who was tired of being overshadowed by Laura. I don't know, just my opinion. 

 LFB for me, though. 

QUOTE:I also prefer the Mr. Pulaski from the Pilot that the one we see later played by another guy, if only because that guy is annoying and his acting is terrible and on the other hand the Pilot one was, well, almost non-existent...

  Ditto the two Johnny Hornes; Robert Bauer vs. Robert Davenport (thud thud thud.)

As a side note, I can imagine Moira shedding the doe-eyed, easily led Donna of FWWM-- the kind of girl who would date a douche like Mike-- and becoming the tougher, cynical girl the series called for (from other roles I've seen her in). But I can't imagine LFB being a Donna that's not serious and on guard all the time. 

QUOTE:I also prefer the Mr. Pulaski from the Pilot that the one we see later played by another guy, if only because that guy is annoying and his acting is terrible and on the other hand the Pilot one was, well, almost non-existent...

I like the awkward way he removes his lid before getting into the police car, suggesting his inner torment and confusion.

In episode 14, Coop should have suddently swung around with a dramatic pointing arm, saying "aaaand it was HIM!", gesturing to Pulaski in a booth, still wearing the helmet thing, eating a sandwich.  Frozen in mid-bite, he looks up, startled, and runs out of the Roadhouse, Family Guy style.

He killed his wife Maria and married Suburbis... Everything makes sense now...

I bet his basement isn't the "sweetest smelling" he ever had...

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

I has to be LFB. MK's clearly a better actress but Donna's such a huge part of the series, I can't fathom being a Twin Peaks fan and having issues with her. Her investigation into meals on wheels is one of the highlights, particularly the scene where she reads the page from Laura's diary.

Lara pride!   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI3xB4KrF3g&feature=related

LFB on Conan, 2005:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upTz0uu6QZk

It seems like she was always kind of sad and insecure. I have a new sympathy for her.

It's very telling that she said she didn't like LA at 19, when she was an energetic, eager to please ingenue, recently disappointed by the film industry.

At 35, she appears detached (medicated?) and even more insecure (hates her chest, her freckles). Check out the defensiveness.

Poor Lara. Kind of reminds me of Marilyn Monroe in her early 20's verus at 35, the change in attitude.

I watched the Letterman interview a couple of weeks ago and thought it was enchanting. LFB had an air of old Hollywood about her, and a self depricating sense of humour.     

Beauty is momentary in the mind -
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.
The body dies; the body's beauty lives.
So evenings die, in their green going,
A wave, interminably flowing.
So gardens die, their meek breath scenting
the cowl of winter, done repenting.
So maidens die, to the auroral
Celebration of a maiden's choral.
Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings
Of those white elders; but, escaping,
Left only Death's ironic scraping.
Now in its immortality, it plays
On the clear viol of her memory,
And makes a constant sacrement of praise.

('Peter Quince at the Clavier' by Wallace Stevens)

LFB for sure.  I think she just suited the character better.  In FWWM, I kept expecting Donna to bust out a pair of ice skates or something.  I know she wasn't interested in being in the movie and that sucks.

I watched the interviews you mentioned 12rainbow.  I really felt bad for her too.  That whole thing with Dead Poet's Society.  What a shitty thing.  Glad I never had a yen to go to Hollywood and be an actress.

....."Tooooe-pick".....

Despite playing the same character, I can't imagine LFB playing the FWWM-Donna or the other way around. I think both actresses are perfectly suited to their respective roles.

Thematically, it even makes kind of sense to switch actresses from the movie to the series, as Laura's death was ultimately a liberating event in Donna's life. The TP-Donna is more sexy, more self-aware than the FWWM-Donna.

I do think Moira Kelly is the better actress though.